History

Beginning in 1925, the Catholic Church initiated a program called the Chantiers du Cardinal, through which it would build churches in undesirable areas and Christianize the red-light districts around Paris. Most of these churches were built of cement and brick. In 1930, cardinalJean Verdier decided to take the program even further, decreeing that it would be necessary, over the next few years, to construct a hundred churches for the diocese. The success of Verdier's plan was total; in 1933 the sixtieth construction site was inaugurated, and in 1934 alone seventeen more were opened. In total, 102 churches, including Notre-Dame-des-Missions, were built around Paris before 1940, when the program finished.

The construction of the church was an outgrowth of an exhibit which had been put together for a 1931 colonial exhibition in the Bois de Vincennes. The vault of the structure was constructed as a chapel for Catholic missions expressly for the exhibit, and was dismantled at its end; it was then reconstructed using more durable materials in 1933 in Épinay-sur-Seine; funds for the building's construction were raised through a national subscription spearheaded by Marshal Hubert Lyautey. The church received its unusual double name from its origins and from the site of its construction; as the colonial exhibition was designed to glorify the evangelization of French colonies by missionaries, it was decided to dedicate the structure to Our Lady of the Missions. The rest of the name refers to the northwestern district of Épinay-sur-Seine, the so-called "Swan of Enghien", in which the church was built. The land upon which it sits was donated by Firmin-Dodot.

Design

The architecture of the church is meant to recall the civilizations that were served by the Christian missions; the building is distinguished from many contemporary works through its use of reinforced concrete. Its architect, Paul Tournon, had already designed another church in the vicinity, that of Saint-Louis in Villemomble. At Notre-Dame-des-Missions, Tournon took his inspiration from the architecture of five continents. The façade of the church is designed with three roofs at the entrance, superimposed one upon another in the Chinese style and decorated with Chinese ideographs. To these are added recumbent angels, Buddhist figures, fetishistic objects, and African-inspired designs. The bell tower is designed in the shape a minaret. The whole facade is covered in blue and white ceramic tile in a pattern created by Lorymi and Raymond Virac, using a new type of brickwork developed in 1930 by Marguerite Huré. The cement sculptures on the bell tower, depicting the four human races, were sculpted by Carlos Sarrabezolles, who had previously worked with Tournon on the bell tower at Saint-Louis. At the top of the tower is a statue of the Virgin Mary standing on a globe; it is the work of Roger de Villiers.

Many painters, sculptors and glassworkers participated in the decoration of the inside of the church; most of these artists came from the studios of sacred art founded by Maurice Denis, who had designed the windows for the nearby Notre-Dame du Raincy, and of Georges Desvallières. It was important that as a group the artists achieved unity of style, and the results of their collaboration comprise one of the most outstanding examples of French ecclesiastical decoration of the 1930s. Louis Barillet and his studio realized the design of some of the stained glass windows, which depict important figures in the history of evangelization. These are grouped around a figure of Christ as Missionary designed by Jean Hébert-Stevens. Among the other notable artists to work on the stained glass in the church were André Rinuy, Marguerite Huré, and Pauline Peugniez.